EYN#009 - Be more engaging, deliver better sessions and spend less time preparing

Read Time: 3 mins

I love comedy and comedians.  When you listen to a good one it's like you're having a chat down the pub.  It feels so natural, so funny, like they've just thought it up on the spot…. it’s effortless.

But of course it's not effortless.  Each comedian has worked hard on both their content and delivery style to make it seem that way.  And most of the time they haven't thought it up on the spot. That comedian goes to the next venue and delivers the same content in a very similar way.

A great comedian has a great set of stories and jokes in their toolkit that they can reuse a hundred times.  A great set of reusable content.

But so often in the tech world, the corporate world we feel we need to deliver completely original content every time.  And so often that content is a bit average.  Wouldn't it be better if we created less content, but made it better quality and delivered it more times.  Wouldn't it be better if we learned from the comedians we love.

You need a toolbag of re-usable content.  What's inside will be different for everyone, but here's some key tools:

Re-usable Anecdotes/Stories

What are the key stories that bring your content to life?  What lived experiences do you have that turn your bone dry content into something compelling.

I have a list of interesting stories in a spreadsheet and have spent some time crafting how I tell them well.  When I need to talk to someone about disaster recovery - boom I've got a compelling story ready to go.

Re-usable Technical Diagrams

You might have the same concept that you need to tell people about time and again.  Maybe details on how authentication works, or a complicated process a team need to follow

Think through how you explain it perfectly.  Think what diagrams you need to support that telling and make the best version of them you can.  Roll that out every time you need them.

Re-usable Demos

If you need to demo products, build some compelling demo's.  Raise your level of ambition and create a brilliant demo.  Load it with great data.  Showcase how you get compelling insights from it.  Design the demo brilliantly once and roll it out time and again.

Re-usable Template

Sometimes you need to give original content in a regular similar, e.g  a monthly business update.  So template it up.  Build the best version of that content and swap out the details every month.  For example:

• Key highlight for month
• Key story for the month
• Key ask for the month

Embrace reusable content.  Write it once, make it ace then re-use it.

Hope this helps

BenP

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